Lehigh Case Is Conflict Guide

April 03, 1991|by ELLIOT GROSSMAN, The Morning Call

Northampton County District Attorney Donald Corriere has said that in determining whether a conflict of interest exists in his office he follows a 1980 Pennsylvania Superior Court decision involving a Lehigh County murder case.

Defendant James A. Miller, represented by a public defender, had claimed in his appeal that the Lehigh County District Attorney's Office had a conflict of interest.

Chief Public Defender William Platt had moved from the public defender's office to the district attorney's office while Miller's case was pending. Earlier, as a public defender, Platt had represented Miller's co-defendant, Scott Frankenfield.

After Platt became district attorney, he assigned Miller's case to an assistant district attorney and instructed the prosecutor not to have any contact with him about the case.

The nine-member Superior Court determined that the district attorney's office did not have a conflict of interest and Platt acted properly by screening himself from the assistant district attorney. The case did not require disqualification of the entire district attorney's office, the court said.

The court indicated that it might rule differently in cases involving private lawyers who have financial motives in representing clients.

The court also said that if it ruled otherwise, a significant number of instances would occur where a district attorney's office would have to be disqualified because public defenders often move to district attorney's offices.

"The practice is so common, in fact, that in large counties such as Philadelphia and Allegheny the rule of disqualification which appellant (the defendant) seeks in this case could cause special prosecutors to become the rule rather than the exception," the ruling said. "The cost to the taxpayers would be enormous."

Earlier, a three-member panel of the Superior Court had reversed Miller's conviction and granted a new trial.

But the district attorney's office appealed to the full Superior Court. The case did not go to the state Supreme Court.

None of the situations in The Morning Call's stories involved a potential conflict of interest arising from the movement of a lawyer from the public defender's office to the district attorney's office.

Corriere declined to be interviewed for these stories. He said in a press release three months ago that he follows the Miller ruling.

He said, "The practice followed in our office is that when individual disqualification appears warranted, the individual district attorney who is disqualified for that case is totally insulated from that case and the matter is handled solely by another district attorney."